Working with local pharmacies, the Medicines Optimisation Team developed an innovative service which would allow patients to be assessed and where necessary issued with antivirals for both treatment and post-exposure prophylaxis of influenza-like illness (ILI) in at-risk patients and also to treatment and pre/post-exposure prophylaxis of Avian Influenza (AI). The mechanism of supply was using the national PGDs for these indications and gave community pharmacists an opportunity to demonstrate their clinical assessment skills.
It is a requirement for ICBs to provide this service and respond to alerts from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) Health Protection Team (HPT) however we found very few areas have used community pharmacies for this service.
